100 White Roses
by With-the-Wolves
Summary: I decided to take on the 100 Themes Challenge! So support my efforts by reading this story!
1. Introduction

**I am taking on the 100 themes challenge! I think I can do it unless something distacts me, or I get all lazy, or something. Wish me luck!**

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><p><strong>1<strong>**. Introduction**

Grey slowly walked into the shabby barn. He didn't feel so small for once, as he was larger than most of the other horses, but this only emphasized his homesickness. He missed his mother, and the barn where he had been born. He had been taken away from there, though, and he couldn't do anything about it.

The large man leading tug stopped suddendly, and Grey decided to tryto take advantage of it. He gathered his strength, then pulled on the rope as hard as he could. The man yelped in surprise, but he didn't release the lead rope.

The man chuckled as he looked over the little horse he had acquired. "Tou certaintly have a Tug on you, don't you?" The laughed a little more and continued farther into the barn."

Eventually, he came to a stop in front of an empty pen. He led Grey into it, and tied up the rope so that Grey couldn't get away. Once the rope was secure, the man took a pen out of his shirt pocket, and wrote something on the paper outside of Grey's pen. He then walked away.

Grey had to strain to look at it, but eventually he could see the writing clearly.

The paper had one word written on it, "Tug."

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><p><strong>I <strong>**wanted to know what it was like for Tug when he first started his training.**


	2. Love

**I wrote this yesterday, but my dad kept yelling at me to get off the computer so I couldn't post it. Oh well.**

**2. Love**

Halt stared at his brother's grave. The morning light cast an eerie shadow on the tombstone, and Halt couldn't help feeling a little insecure in spite of himself.

Halt knew that Horace was standing barely ten feet away, waiting to go a get Tennyson, yet Halt had never felt as lonely as he felt then.

Halt thought of all of his childhood times, when he kept trying to convince himself that Ferris hadn't really been trying to kill him. He sighed at his ignorance.

He remembered one time in particular, when Ferris had tried to drown him in the river near their home. Halt had been standing at the edge of the river, feeling the cool wind in his hair. Then, he suddendly wasn't standing on the banks anymore.

He tried to convince himself that he had slipped for days afterward. Yet, he couldn't shake the image of Ferris, when Halt finally surfaced, just standing there, not doing anything. There wasn't even a scared expression on his face.

Halt sighed as all of the attempted murders that Halt had tried so hard to forget came back to him. It didn't make sense to him. Ferris had tried so many times to kill Halt, almost succeeding many of those times. Halt had all the reasons to feel spiteful, not willing to honor Ferris's memory.

Yet, that wasn't what Halt was feeling at all. He almost missed Ferris, despite all of his power-hungry flaws.

Halt cast one last look at the grave, that almost appeared sorrowful, matching Halt's feeling, then turned to Horace.

As they walked out of the graveyard, a sentence uttered by Halt could be heard echoing across the plain.

"He wasn't much of a brother, but he was the only one I had."

**It confused me why Halt was sad that his brother died. So I wrote a story about it. Hope you liked it.**


	3. Light

**Here's #3, though it took me awhile to come up with it. Hope that it isn't horrible.**

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><p><strong>3<strong>**. Light**

Gilan sat on the porch of his house during the storm. He had just turned fifteen, and his father was certaintly excited about Gilan going to batleschool. But Gilan wasn't sure that he wanted to do that.

Ever since he was old enough to weild a sword, Gilan's father had been training him. Then, he had went to the lessons. Gilan was good with a sword, better than most, but he wasn't sure that he was cut out to be a knight.

Gilan had been eleven when he first saw the ranger. He had followed him, all the way to his cabin, far in the woods. Gilan supposed that he should have been worried about getting back out of the woods, but that problem didn't occur to him. Needless to say, it had been an uncomfortable walk back out of the woods.

Ever since then, Gilan had been watching the ranger carefully. He had once asked his father about the rangers, but his father didn't know enough for Gilan.

Gilan knew that he wanted to become a ranger. But, his father wanted him to be a knight.

Gilan sighed. He had no idea what he was supposed to do.

Just then, a bolt of lightening illuminated the ground, only a few meters away from where Gilan was sitting. Gilan should've felt scared, but that wasn't even close to what he was feeling. He suddendly knew exactly what to do.

He got up, and went inside to tell his father his decision.

-Two months later-

Gilan walked slowly through the woods, more sore than he could ever remember being. He relished the feel of the rain on his skin, but it didn't help the pain much. He was on one of his only breaks that he had had since he began his apprenticeship. He began to have second thoughts about whether he had made the right choice.

Suddenly, a bright flash of lightening illuminated the sky, leaving almost as soon as it came.

As the forest darkened, Gilan remembered the day when he made his decision.

He turned and made his way back to the cabin.

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><p><strong>Light. This was the best idea that I had, the most writable one, too. <strong>

**-MEEEE**


	4. Dark

**3 of my neighbor's kids were over here playing with my older sister while I was writing this. That shows how focused I can get. Hope you like 4, and that you reveiw.**

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><p><strong>4<strong>**. Dark**

Princess Cassandra sat in the tent, nearly shaking with fear. They had heard reports of wargals in the area, and Cassandra couldn't help thinking that every noise and every movement from outside was a Wargal, about to attack them.

Cassandra turned to her servant, Evanlyn. "Do you think that there are Wargals coming?"

Evanlyn sighed, her mistress had well-founded fears, but she was asking way too many times. "If they are coming in this direction, they are more likely to hear you if you keep asking that."

Cassandra sighed, trying to swallow her fear. She knew that Evanlyn was right, but. somehow, the silence seemed to multiply the fear.

Suddenly, they heard a noise, somewhat far into the distance. It sounded like chanting, but it seemed devoid of legible words. It was coming closer andcloser to them.

Cassandra looked at Evanlyn, whose face had lost all color. "They're coming." She whispered in a very faint voice.

Cassandra felt her heart speed up even faster, and she had to swallow the shreik that was rising in her throat. "We have to get away." She whispered back, in a barely audible voice.

The chanting was getting closer now, the ones responsible for it must have been moving at a great speed. Evanlyn heard this and nodded, beginning to gather up their blankets and clothes.

Cassandra began to gather things up, too, and, after what felt to them like hours, they had everything gathered up.

The chanting was closer than ever, no more than one hundred meters away.

With great haste, the girls began to mount their horses, taking care not to tip any of the packages off the beasts. Before they could get moving, however, a huge pack of wargals marched into the clearing, chanting the whole time.

In spite of herself, Cassandra heard herself shriek in fear. She heard Evanlyn behind her yelling, "Move!" And thankfully this was enough to spur her into action.

Cassandra urged her horse forward, which didn't take much urging. She moved forward quickly, and she could hear Evanlyn's horse behind her. She relaxed for a moment.

Then she heard a gasp from Evanlyn. She turned in her saddle, and was horrified to see Evanlyn barely hanging on to her saddle, an arrow in her side.

Evanlyn gave Cassandra a wistful smile, then tumbled out of the saddle. She could hear Cassandra yelling, "Evanlyn" over and over, but it didn't do any good.

Evanlyn wished she could have seen her mistress to safety, but she didn't dwell on this too long. The wargals were coming closer, and Evanlyn wasn't going to let them see her die.

She closed her eyes and welcomed the darkness encircling her.

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><p><strong>That was kind of Angsty...Ah well, I enjoyed writing it. It doesn't really explain about this in too much detail in book 2 so I decided that this could make a good story for Dark.<strong>


	5. Seeking Solace

**This is going to be really bad, but I couldn't think of anything else. That means you people have to deal with it. This is very angsty, though. I like it for that reason. Oh! I have to tell you guys what I learned today. Remember Santa Anna from the whole Alamo thing? He was creepy! When he was 16 or so, he lost his leg in battle. Then, when he was in the whole tyrant thing, he put the leg on display so that people would remember the sacrifices that he had made for his country. Yeah. True story. Anyway, enough of my life, read now!**

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><p><strong>5. Seeking Solace<strong>

Svengal grimly took his place at the helm of the ship. He felt the wind in his face, but even the sea breeze could not give him comfort. Svengal simply could not find solace.

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><p>It was going to be their final raid. After being captured by the Arrida, Erak was more battle-hungry than ever. After more than three months of Erak practically begging Svengal to let him captain the <em>Wolfwind<em> once more, Svengal finally said yes.

They decided to go a fairly small coastal town in Gallica. They docked, careful not to attract any attention, and soon their whole crew was standing on the docks.

They had started the raid, and everything was pretty standard. Until the men came.

Erak had been at the front of the group. He had his battle-axe in hand. He alone should have been able to take all of the Gallican men alone, let alone with more Skandians behind him.

Yet somehow something had gone wrong.

When the men attacked, Svengal got ready to start fighting. He didn't hear Erak yell the signal, though. He couldn't see what was going on through his crew, and he suddendly wished that he was taller.

He knew that the Gallican men were almost upon them. So, hoping that Erak didn't have some bigger plan, Svengal yelled, "Attack!"

The battle was over in minutes. The Gallican men who were lucky enough to escape had ran off. The not-so-lucky ones had their bodies strewn across the ground.

Looking across the battleground, Svengal should have felt the satisfaction of another succesfull raid. Looking around, though, Svengal saw no sign of Erak. He gazed at his men, not quite in a panic. But Erak was not in the crowd.

Svengal tried to remain calm, but after Arrida, Svengal had become a lttle more protective of the Oberjarl.

He took a deep breath and cast one more look around the empty field. Not seeing anything, he asked some of the men if they had seen what had become Erak, but none of them had seen clearly enough to give a definite answer.

Svengal sighed, trying not to give in to the darkness that had suddendly surrounded his mind.

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><p>Erak lay in a forest just off the path. He was under a thornbush, and he could feel his energy slowly ebbing away.<p>

The gash in his chest was deep, and Erak wasn't going to kid with himself. He was going to die.

He feebly reached out his hand, trying to grab his battle-axe, which was less than a meter away, but he couldn't summon the energy. a thick panic took over him as he thought of a life of...nothingness.

He gasped, and tried all the harder to reach it, but soon, he was too tired to even turn his head to look at his weapon.

He let out one last shuddering breath, and the darkness overtook him as his life flowed away.

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><p><strong>I'm soulless. Not only did I kill Erak, but he didn't even have his weapon. Wow.<strong>


	6. Break Away

**Ummm...I couldn't think of anything but this. It is currently 2 AM and I am really bored, so I finally wrote the sixth theme. I realize that it isn't EXACTLY like the book.**

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><p><strong>6. Break Away<strong>

Horace stood in the line of soldiers. They were getting ready to battle Morgarath, and Horace was nervous. He knew that it was natural, but he wondered if the other apprentices felt as nervous as he did.

He stood, occasionally going to help prepare, but he mainly just stood in the line, watching the direction that he knew Morgarath's soldiers were going to come from.

He didn't grow tired, even by the time that four hours had passed, he still felt battle-ready.

He continued scanning the horizon, checking for any sign of Morgarath's army. He was only half expecting to see them, and he started in surprise when they appeared. Flustered, Horace began to yell a warning, but Sir Rodney had already called it.

Horace took a deep breath and prepared himself for battle.

Horace stared at the gruesome scene around him. Soldiers were dying all around him, and he felt a pang of sorrow as he realized that most of the men would just be marked as "casualties of war". He surprised himself with how angry he felt, and he began to fight more quickly and vigorously than before.

Horace tried to keep the line, but it was too chaotic. He began to fight everyone he saw, defending every Araluen soldier in trouble. But it was not enough. It was alarming how fast that soldiers were falling, and Araluen didn't have many soldiers to begin with, especially compared to Morgarath's huge army.

He was so engulfed in this thought, he didn't notice a Skandian coming up behind him. He heard Sir Rodney yell a warning just in time, and Horace turned to face the Man.

Immediately, Horace was overwhelmed by the size of the battleaxe. He leered away from it, giving the Skandian the advantage. He raised the axe over his head, and Horace felt a strange calmness as he realized that he would become a casualty of war. He prepared for the axe to hit him, but, just before the Skandian attacked, Horace saw Morgarath battling Sir Rodney.

In a moment of fury, Horace deflected the axe with his sword, and quickly incapacitated the Skandian.

He began to make his way past the battling men, and the falling men. He realized that he was no more talented than most of these men, yet, in the few seconds that he rode toward Morgarath, he became something more. He broke away.

He stopped a good ten feet away and yelled in a partial fit of madness, "Morgarath! I challenge you to single combat!"


	7. Heaven

**Theme #7-Heaven**

Horace got up, infuriated with himself. He was confused, as he had never been this distracted before. He turned to the soldier, "I'm done for today, Mike."

The soldier nodded, and left the arena, leaving Horace and Cassandra alone.

Horace walked over to her, breathing slowly. She smiled when she saw him coming. "Nice job letting Mike beat you." She said, laughing.

Horace sighed and remained silent.

Cassandra noticed his silence, and her smile dissapated. "What's wrong?"

Horace sighed. "I've been..distracted lately."

Cassandra smiled again, understanding. "I get it, Horace."

Horace smiled. He had always loved how she could read him, and understand his feelings before even he did.

She looked at him, and he saw the beauty in her gaze. "I love you, Horace."

Horace felt something in him, and said, "I love you, too, Cassandra."

Then, they were kissing. For once, Horace didn't focus on the things worrying him. He was in heaven. He knew that the moment would pass, but Horace knew that he would always have Cassandra.


	8. Innocence

**Innocence took me awhile, I know. Not because I didn't have any ideas, because I'm lazy...**

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><p><strong>8. Innocence<strong>

Will crouched behind the table, staying as still as he possibly could. He kept his eyes on Master Chubb, waiting for him to turn and spot Will.

Will had to stop himself from breathing a sigh of relief as Master Cubb turned to leave. Any noise could alert the chef.

Will jumped up as soon as he left, and rushed over to the pie rack, where six fresh-baked pies lay steaming. He reached out to pick up one, forgetting all caution. He yelped as his hand burned from the touch of the hot pie.

Screaming silently, he grabbed a piece of cloth from his bag, which he had brought to carry the pies in.

Gingerly, he picked one up, taking great caution not to let it touch his bare skin. Suddenly, he heard Master Chubb stomping up the stairs, hitting his ladle against the wall. Startled, Will dropped the pie, swearing as it hit the ground.

He had no time to hide before Master Chubb walked in and saw Will, a broken pie, and a cloth sack. "What do you think you're doing, boy?" He said, his voice edged with anger.

Will managed to squeak out, "I'm innocent?"

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><p><strong>Dang, this one was short. I didn't notice while I was writing it but, dang...Well at least it's longer than a drabble.<strong>


	9. Drive

**8. Drive**

"No! You are not using Kicker to pull this carriage!"

"They're almost here! Either you can have Kicker pull the carriage, or we can face their wrath!"

Horace glared at Will. "Why do we even need the carriage?"

Will threw up his hands in exasperation. "It has all of our supplies and weapons. Would you like to be stranded here without those things?"

Horace looked at the loaded carriage. "Well, why can't Tug pull it?"

Will glanced at the horse that was standing beside him. Inwardly, he thought, Because _Tug is a Ranger horse. Of course he isn't going to be the one to pull the carriage. _But to Horace, he said, "Tug isn't strong enough to pull that load."

Horace rolled his eyes. "I thought that Ranger horses were stronger than that."

"You can hook Kicker up, Horace, or you can have them catch us. You can choose."

Growling and mumbling to himself, Horace reluctantly attached Kicker to the harness. "If we weren't being chased Will..." He trailed off as he saw the bemused expression on Will's face.

Will kept the expression as Horace climbed into the driver's seat "I'm sure you would, Horace. But we _are_ being chased, so DRIVE!"


	10. Breathe Again

**10. Breathe Again**

"You can breathe, girl. Come on, breathe!" The farmer said. He had found the pretty blonde girl drowning in the stream near his farm. The girl wore the white clothes of the couriers. He had fished her out, but she had a nasty gash on her head and she wasn't breathing. The man was determined to save her.

He doubled his efforts, trying harder to get the girl to breathe.

Then she coughed up water and the man smiled. He had been successful. She opened her eyes and looked around. "Who are you?" She asked the man.

"Cole. I live here." The man replied. "Who are you?"

"I'm Alyss. I was on a mission, but I don't remember what it was." She replied.

"So you _are_ a courier, then?" He asked.

"Yes." She said, looking around as if she was in a trance. " I should probably get back to Redmont and see what I was supposed to be doing." She said, but Cole stopped her.

"You aren't fit to travel." He said.

"It could've been important, though! What if...I don't know, there was going to be a revolt somewhere or...something? They'll figure that I'm going! I _need_ to go back."

"Well, if you collapse on the way back to the castle and get eaten by wolves, they'll still assume that you're on your mission. It'll be better if you stay here for the night.

Alyss had to admit, he did have a point. "I suppose you're right." She said.


	11. Memory

**11. Memory**

"How did this happen?" Malcolm asked Will.

"We were climbing up a mountain. Racing. And Horace, er, slipped. He must have hit his head on a rock."

"And why were you two racing up a mountain?" Malcolm asked.

"Horace bet that he was a much faster climber than I was, and I was like, 'No you are not.' And he was like, 'I am, too!' So we decided to have a race."

"Do you have any sense?" Malcolm asked the young ranger.

The ranger looked at Malcolm. "Of course we have no sense. Horace was trained by Rodney and I was trained by Halt. What do you expect?"

Malcolm looked down at Horace's body. The knight had a large gash on his head from where he had hit a rock. "How high up were you?"

"Ummm...Maybe ten feet high?" Will offered.

"He hopefully won't have any internal bleeding, then. Ten feet isn't terribly high. But this gash..." He trailed off.

"What?" Will asked.

"Horace might have some brain damage." Malcolm said.

"You mean his brain wasn't already damaged?" Will asked.

"Will! This isn't the time for you to try and be funny!"

"I'm not trying to be funny. I just didn't think anyone could really be that stupid. Then I though, 'He probably just has brain damage.' He didn't?"

Malcolm sighed. "No, Will, he didn't."

"Oh. So..What are you gonna do?"

Malcolm sighed again. "Will, why don't you go find Shadow?"

"Okay. But I'm not stupid Malcolm, you could've just asked me to leave." Will said as he turned to leave the house.

After what felt like hours, Malcolm came out of the house. "He's waking up, Will."

Will jumped to his feet. "Is he okay? Does he actually have brain damage? Did you cut open his head?" Will asked.

"Just come inside." Malcolm said.

Will obeyed, and he saw Horace looking around, dazed. "Hey, Horace!" He said.

Horace looked at Will. "Who are you?" Horace asked.

Will raised an eyebrow at Horace. "I'm Will."

"Should I know you?" Horace asked.

Will turned to Malcolm, who was looking at Horace. "Strange." Malcolm said. "Horace recognized _me_."

"Yeah. How could I forget you, Malcolm?" Horace said.

"Yet you don't remember me?" Will asked.

"No. You don't look familiar. Well, other than your cloak. That looks like the same kind that Halt and Gilan wear. Are you a ranger?"

"You remember Halt and Gilan?" Will asked.

"Of course. I also remember Cassandra and King Duncan. Just in case you were going to ask.

"Malcolm?" Will asked. "Is this strange to you, too?"

Then Horace started laughing. "WIll, you had such a great look on your face!" He said.

"What?" Will asked.

"Will, I know you aren't that smart, but, seriously, can't you figure this out?"

Will's mouth dropped open. "You were playing a trick on me!"

"Yeah. Serves you right for what you did to me, too."

"That was an accident, though!"

"Yep, you yelled, 'I will _not_ lose, Horace.' and then you threw a large rock at me, knocking me off of the cliff!"

"The rock wasn't..._that_ big. It was practicly a pebble.

"Yep. A pebble that was about as big as your head. And just as thick."

A devious smile spread across Will's face. "Horace, you had fake brain damage to get back at me for what I accomplished through my own cunning-ness."

"And a rock." Horace added.


	12. Insanity

**12. Insanity**

"You're going to do what?" Horace asked Will, looking at the young ranger as if he had lost his mind.

"I'm gonna go jump in the lake." Will told the knight.

"I think you've finally lost it, Will." Horace said. "In case you hadn't noticed, _it's the middle of winter_!"

"Yeah, but it's like eighty degrees outside. I'll be fine." Will said. "Are you gonna come?"

"Will, I'm not stupid."

"Are you sure?" Will said. "Because it's pretty hot outside and you're passing up a chance to cool off."

"I'm not coming, Will."

"Fine! I'm leaving." Will said as he turned to leave.

"Have fun freezing to death." Horace said.

Will turned around right as he got to the door. "Are you sure you don't want to come?"

"Yes."

"Yes, you're sure you don't want to come or yes, you actually want to come?" Will asked.

"Yes, I'm sure I don't want to come." Horace said.

"Please, will you come?" Will asked.

"For the last time, NO!"

-An hour later-

"You jump in first, Horace." Will said, looking atthe dark depths of the lake they were standing next to.

Horace looked at Will. "This was _your_ idea. You jump in first."

"You're pretty bossy, now, aren't you?"

Horace looked at Will. "Says the person who practically forced me to come here."

"I didn't _force_ you to." Will said. "But if you want me to jump in first, fine." He prepared himself to jump.

A few seconds later, Horace spoke up. "You gonna jump sometime soon?"

Will glared at Horace. "I'm just mentally preparing myself."

"It really doesn't take that long to-" Horace began.

"Shut up, Horace! I'll jump when I feel like it!"

Horace waited for what felt like an hour. Finally, he came to a decision. Slowly, he walked toward Will, trying not to make a sound. Once he got close enough, he prepared to push Will into the lake.

He was completely unprepared for when Will spun around and pushed Horace in instead.

Horace surfaced, sputtering. "Will, you idiot!" He said as he climbed out. "This water is freezing!"

"I'm sure it's not that bad." Will said, just before he jumped in.

He surfaced in a similar manner to the way that Horace had. "This is freezing!" He said.

Horace shook his head. "I warned you. You just didn't listen because you're too insane."


	13. Misfortune

**13. Misfortune**

"HALT!" Came Gilan's voice from somewhere outside of the cabin. Halt sighed as he got to his feet. No matter how many weeks passed, Halt couldn't get used to having an apprentice. Especially one who seemed to attract trouble.

Halt stepped out of the cabin and was greeted by a strange sight. Gilan, mounted on Blaze was smiling nervously at him from inside a ring of dogs. Interesting.

"I'm kind of...In a situation here." Gilan said, then yelped as one of the dogs lunged forward.

Halt quickly drew aa arrow and shot it, so that it only narrowly missed the dog that had lunged. The dog yelped and ran off. Halt rolled his eyes as he watched the others follow. Leave it to Gilan to be trapped by the most cowardly of dogs.

"Thanks Halt!" Gilan said as he dismounted.

Halt surveyed Gilan. "Do you want to tell me how you got into that situation?"

"Well, I don't really _want _to tell you, but I probably have to, right?"" Gilan said.

"Exactly." Halt said as he turned to walk back into the cabin. Gilan followed him and soon they were sitting at the table with mugs of coffee in their hands.

"So how exactly did you get yourself into that situation?" Halt asked.

Gilan stared at his coffee, refusing to meet Halt's eyes. "Well...you know how you sent me to get a duck?"

Halt raised an eyebrow at Gilan, making the apprentice feel stupid.

"Right. Of course you do." Gilan mumbled. In a louder voice, he said, "Well, I went to the butcher's and Jacob, my father's friend, was there. He asked me whether I was training to be a knight and I said, 'No, I'm training to be a ranger!' I told him that I was learning to shoot a bow and how to throw knives and how to track stuff-"

Halt cut him off. "So you told him all of our secrets, in other words?"

Gilan gasped. "Those were secrets? Uhh...Well, I actually _didn't _tell him all of those things, but he was in the war with Morgarath, so...he knew that rangers could shoot good and-"

"It's not rangers could shoot good, it's ranger could shoot _well_." Halt said.

Gilan snorted. "I think rangers shoot a little better than just _well_. Anyway, he didn't think that I could _ever _learn how to shoot good. Well, he was getting a cow, you see, _so_ he bet me that I couldn't hit it with an arrow. He said that if I could, then the cow would be your's. Well, I was like, 'This'll be way easy." And Jacob was like, 'You couldn't hit the side of a building, Gilan.' But then I shot and I _did _hit the cow. So I got it. But then Jacob told me that I had to go skin it and I was like, 'No way! That's the butcher's job!' But the butcher said that when you shoot his animals, it becomes your responsibility to skin them so I was like, 'Awww.'"

"Can you just get to the point of this story?" Halt asked.

Gilan ignored him. "Then, after I skinned the cow, Jacob told me that Blaze didn't look that fast. And I was all like, offended. So I bet him that I could ride all the way to your cabin and back to the butcher's in ten minutes. He was like, 'No way.' And I was like, 'Way.' He still didn't believe me, though, so he accepted my bet and told me that if I lost, he got the cow."

"Gilan, you have a betting problem." Halt said. "I think we should work on that."

"I do not have a betting problem!" Gilan said. Then he continued with the story. "So I started to ride back here, but when I got into the woods, those wolves started chasing me!"

"They weren't wolves, Gilan. They were wild dogs, if that." Halt said.

"Whatever they were, they kept running after us until finally we got to the cabin and they surrounded us! But then you came and it was good again!" Gilan finished.

"So...You lost your bet?" Halt asked.

"Yep." Gilan said.

"Well, at least we have a duck." Halt said.

"Oh...I might have forgotten to get that." Gilan said.

"Gilan, you are an idiot." Halt said.

"Like you've never had unfortunate days!" Gilan said.

"I've had some. The day you became my apprentice, for instance." Halt said.

Gilan sat in silence for a few seconds before responding, "You know, it's when you say things like that when I can really think of great ways to annoy you."


	14. Smile

**This is a sequel to Seeking Solace. And it is very short.**

**14. Smile**

"Smile, Svengal." Someone said. Svengal sighed. He couldn't smile. Not after what had happpened with Erak. When they had arrived back at Skandia, their ship missing the Oberjarl, everyone had been quick to tell Svengal that it wasn't his fault.

They hadn't elected a new Oberjarl yet. Everyone was waiting, to see if Erak would somehow get back to Skandia.

Svengal sighed again, as he went back to that battle. He wondered vaguely what had gone wrong. As he thought about it, he came to a decision. Erak must have survived. He had probably cut down most of those farmer's numbers and then gone on to continue the raid. He would still be in Gallica!

Svengal ignored the fact that it was unlikely that Erak would just leave his men to fight the farmers themselves. He got to his feet, and left the bar. By the time he was outside, he was smiling.


	15. Silence

**15. Silence**

"Halt?" Will asked from behind the ranger.

Halt turned around and glared at his apprentice. "You do realize that the whole point of this is for you to be silent?"

"Well, I was just wondering, why do we _need_ to be silent?"

Halt rolled his eyes, wondering why his apprentice was such an idiot. "Because when you're in enemy territory, you can hardly go racketing through like a bear making all kinds of noise, now can you?"

Will considered this for a moment. "But, if you sound like a bear, wouldn't that sound a little...natural?"

Halt raised an eyebrow Will. "If an enemy was anywhere near sane, he wouldn't be having a bear running around his camp. They'd grab some form of weapon and go kill the thing. And we don't want that, now do we?"

"Umm...I guess not...But, Halt?"

Halt sighed. He should've known that his apprentice would have another question. "What, Will?"

"If there was a bear, wouldn't we _want _them to kill it? I mean, if they didn't, wouldn't there be a chance of it, like, eating us?"

Halt looked at his apprentice. "Just be silent, Will." He said.

Wisely, Will obeyed.


	16. Questioning

**16. Questioning**

"Will, what are you doing?" Horace asked. The ranger was standing on the roof of his cabin.

Will glanced over at the knight. "Umm..nothing."

Horace tried to raise an eyebrow at him. "Are you sure? It looks to me as if you're standing on your roof."

Will looked down at the knight. "I'm doing secret...ranger...stuff." Will nearly fell off the roof as he said it.

Horace rolled his eyes. "Just tell me what you're really doing up there." Horace said.

"Just stopn questioning me!" Will said. "I know what I'm doing, Horace." Then Will fell.

Horace stepped out of the way as he landed on the ground. "Yep. You know sure what you're doing."


	17. Blood

**17. Blood**

Halt balanced on the side of the cliff with Horace and Will. The three of them were dealing with a few bandits that had taken to robbing somewhat innocent Araluens. After a few days of following their trail, the three of them had finally found the bandits' camp.

Halt had gone through their plan earlier. All three of them would climb down the cliff. Then, they would draw nearer to the camp, where Will and Halt would shoot the bandits with arrows, crippling them. Then they would arrest the bandits. It seemed relatively straightforward.

Horace had remarked on this, "Halt, I think you're starting to show your age. What happened to being devious and...sneaky?"

Halt had replied that the plan was fine, as the bandits would be completely unprepared. "They have no idea that we're here." He had said.

So the three of them had began the plan, once night had fallen. They were carefully picking their way down the cliff, and, though Horace seemed a tad unstable, they were doing fine.

Then they were attacked. The arrows seemed to come out of nowhere, and, though most of them missed the three men completely, one hit Will in the shoulder.

Will cried out in pain, then fear as his grip released and he fell.

"Will!" Horace yelled. He turned to Halt. "What are we going to do?"

"We have to climb back up." Halt said, turning away from the knight as he climbed. Horace was unable to see the moisture in Halt's eyes.

Horace obliged and was soon at the top. Halt was already there, shooting at the men below. Soon, all of the men had fallen, though it was impossible to know whather they were dead or just wounded. Quickly the two of them climbed to the bottom.

There was blood. A lot of blood. It looked as if some of the bandits had shot him as he fell. Horace was crying, and, though his cowl hid it, Halt had tears running down his face.

There was no denying it. Will Treaty was dead.

When Horace and Halt arrived back at castle Araluen, Halt went immediately to Crowley. The first thing that was said was, "I'm retiring."


	18. Rainbow

**Okay, so in this story, it is…um…quite a few years in the future and Will now has an apprentice! His name is Carter. And he might appear in the future, but I just made him up because I needed a character younger than Will and Horace…So, yeah…**

**17. Rainbow**

"Horace?" Will's new apprentice asked the knight. Will had come to the castle on some ranger thing and had left Horace with his apprentice until he finished talking with Crowley. Horace rolled his eyes, thinking about how secretive all rangers liked being.

"What, Carter?" Horace asked.

"Are unicorns real?" The apprentice asked.

Horace blinked and tried, unsuccessfully to raise an eyebrow at Carter. "Why would you even ask that?"

Carter looked embarrassed. "Well, when I first started my apprenticeship, I asked Will how he rode his horse so good. Then Will told me that Tug was secretly a unicorn and that his true form was only revealed when there was a rainbow in the sky." Carter finished.

Horace shook his head, wondering what the heck Will had been thinking. Then he wondered how the boy could be stupid enough to believe it. _It has been cloudy lately._ He reasoned. There hadn't been a rainbow in the sky during the short time that Carter had been Will's apprentice. "I think Will is an idiot." He finally answered.

"So…there's no such thing as unicorns?" Carter asked for verification.

Horace shook his head. He lowered his voice. "But I need to tell you something that'll probably help you. Will-" Horace looked around the room they were in. "Will is secretly a werewolf."

Carter gasped. "Really?" He asked, looking scared. He had always wondered about how Will was so good at tracking things.

Horace nodded grimly. "Do you really think that Crowley hasn't given Will an apprentice? Will'shad at least two-that I know of, at least. They annoyed him so much that he took them deep into the woods one day. Neither of them were ever seen again."

Carter looked absolutely terrified. "How come I've never heard about this?" He asked.

"Crowley keeps it on the down-low. He doesn't want word getting out that one of his rangers likely ate two apprentices."

"Do you think he'll eat me?" Carter asked.

Horace shrugged. "He won't change until the full moon. You'll have until then, at least. In the meantime, I'd try not to annoy him."

Then Will walked into the room. "What have you been telling Carter, Horace?" He immediately asked the knight.

Horace tried to look innocent. "I was just telling him about how amazing you were when we had to save Alyss in Macindaw." He shot a look at Carter that told the apprentice to play along.

Will looked at Carter. "Is that what he was really telling you?"

Carter nodded quickly.

Then the two of them left. Horace snorted at how easily Will believed that Horace had been complimenting him. It was official, Will was getting full of himself. Then Horace smiled, thinking about what would happen once the full moon came. _I've been hanging around rangers _way_ too much._ He thought. _I'm starting to turn devious._


	19. Grey

**19. Grey**

"Halt?" Will asked.

Halt sighed, wondering why his apprentice asked so many questions. "What, Will?"

"Why do our cloaks have grey in them?"

"I've already explained to you about the camoflauge." Halt growled.

"Not that." Will said. "Why is it grey when nothing in nature is grey?"

Halt raised an eyebrow at his apprentice. "Trees are grey."

"No they aren't." Will said triumphantly. "They're brown."

"Really?" Halt said, a dangerous glint in his eyes.

Will failed to see the danger. "Yeah. I can't believe you don't know this. I learned this when I was five years old." Will laughed lightly.

-Three Hours Later—

"Can I come down yet?" Will asked, looking down at his mentor from the top of a tree.

"Not until you realize that you are never going to outsmart me." Halt said.

Will sighed, knowing that it would be hours before his feet touched the ground.


	20. Fortitude

**20. Fortitude**

Will took a drink of water, feeling the pills slide down his throat as he swallowed. He looked around quickly, wondering if Halt had seen him. He let out a sigh of relief as he realized that the ranger was nowhere near him. He was in a pretty secluded spot in the woods, after all.

Then he saw a flicker of movement, and then Halt was standing right next to him. "What was that?"Halt asked his apprentice.

Will looked at the ground. "My medications." He said.

"Why do you have medications?"

"Because I was too hyper for everyone at the ward, so they put me on special medications." He handed the bottle of pills to Halt.

Halt studied the bottle. "This is not medicine, Will." Halt said.

"What is it, then?" Will asked.

"These are vitamins. Fortified with vitamin C and A. And also antioxidants."

"Why'd they tell me that it was medicine, then?" Will asked.

"I don't know." HAlt said as he threw the bottle of vitamins into the woods.

"What did you do that for?" Will asked, gazing after the bottle.

"I don't need fortified apprentices. They're bad enough when they're normal."


	21. Vacation

**Last night, I was spending the night at my** **friend, Glory's house. All of you stalkers know that, since Glory when I was trying to listen to th emovieis my boyfriend's sister, my boyfriend also lives in that house. We wouldn't do anything inappropriate, though. Even if we wanted to, Bryson's dad locked him in a closet, so...  
>Anyway, we were watching this horror called, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark. It was really good, but Bryson got REALLY annoying because he kept adding commentary and making fun of all the characters when I was trying to watch the movie. And he also kept making fun of me whenever I flinched at something.<br>Also, now I keep freaking out whenever I'm in a dark room. It was just a creepy movie.**

* * *

><p><strong>21. Vacation<strong>

"Halt?" Will and Gilan asked the old ranger.

"Why do they insist on bothering me?" Halt asked nobody in particular.

"Do you ever think about taking a vacation?" They asked.

"Rangers don't take vacations." Halt said.

I think you should take a vacation, Halt." Gilan said.

"Yeah." Added Will.

Halt looked at his two former apprentices. "If I took a vacation, there'd be no one able to defend Araluen from you two."

Will and Gilan were silent for two blissful seconds.

Then Gilan said, "Crowley could."

Halt eyed Gilan. "Crowley's worse than you two."


	22. Mother Nature

I recently saw an amazing movie. It was called, _Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street._ And it was amazing. And Johnny Depp stars in it. And it was directed by Tim Burton. And it was amazing.  
>Basically, it's about a barber who decides that everyone deserves to die, so whenever someone comes to get a shave, he slices their nack open with a razor.<br>The first time I watched it, I nearly cried. Mainly becasue one of the characters is this kid named Toby who is awesome. And he sings, like, the catchiest song EVER. When Todd kills Perelli, the guy that Toby works for, Toby comes to live with Mrs. Lovette, the woman who loves Todd and bakes the people who he kills into pies. And sells them to people.  
>Anyway, for, like, the entire movie, I was nearly in tears thinking, <em>Toby's gonna die, Toby's gonna die, Toby's gonna die.<em> Just that same thought, over and over and over.

* * *

><p><strong>22. Mother Nature<strong>

Will and Gilan both blamed the strange occurences on the death of Halt.

Except Halt wasn't _really _dead. Will and Gilan knew this, as well as Crowley, but most of Araluen thought that the ranger had died in a tragic accident.

Will and Gilan and Crowley hadn't _told_ them this, though. Someone had, though, someone who, for whatever reason, wanted to kill Halt.

He had shown up at Halt's cabin one night, where Will was sleeping, because it was night and Will isn't nocturnal.

Will could have died that night. If Halt oiled his hinges, then there would have been no noise to wake him. The man could have entered the cabin and left a few minutes later, confident that he had killed the ranger known as Halt.

But Will heard the squeaking of the hinges, and his eyes flickered open. He readied himself for an attack, and sat down, pointing an arrow at the door.

But the man didn't enter. Will did not know why, but the hinges creaked again less than five minutes after the initial open/close noise. The man had left.

Will walked out of the room, his bow still loaded, but the cabin was deserted, and nothing had been stolen. Will wondered why anyone would enter for no reason. Then he thought of Tug.

_He's asleep. That's why I didn't hear him. That's why._ Will had thought, but he went outside just the same, still holding his loaded bow.

Tug _was_ asleep. But it was a poisoned sleep that completely took Tug away from the waking world for twelve hours. It worried Will.

There had been something in the water that Will had given Tug. Something that made sure that Tug slept.

It was when Will figured this out, after Tug woke up, that Will went to Halt.

"It was so weird, Halt. The person did something to Tug to make him sleep, but they didn't _do _anything once they came in. It was as if they just walked in and then left, without doing anything."

"Maybe they didn't see what they were looking for." Halt said.

* * *

><p>It was at the time that Will and Halt were having this conversation that Sarah arrived at her new home. She had walked most of the way, but she had caught a ride with another traveler for the three miles that she had remaining.<p>

"Thanks for the ride." She had said to the man when he stopped at her new house.

"It was nothing. This is right on my way." The man responded. "I need to see the ranger, Halt."

Sarah had frowned. "Didn't you hear? Halt died a few weeks ago. He was in some sort of accident. I don't really know the details...Sarah trailed off. "I suppose you'll have to speak to one of the other rangers."

"Are you sure? Rumors spread fast, I know. What you were told could have been a lie made up by some tasteless person."

Sarah shook her head. "I'm sure. I heard it from an extremely reliable source. Thanks again for the ride."

The man left then, leaving Sarah to look over the house.

It was a little ugly, and much too clean-cut for Sarah's tastes.

The grass stared to grow a little longer. Slowly at first, then faster as Sarah urged it on. Ivy grew up the walls of the house, and trees grew at seemingly random points around the yard.

Sarah started to walk toward the house, unhindered by the grass, as it parted before her as if afraid of her touch.

* * *

><p>Gilan ran toward Castle Redmont, rushing through the streets. If what he had heard was true, then Will would most certainly be there.<p>

"Will!" Gilan yelled as he entered and he continued yelling as he tried to find the young ranger.

"Gilan, why the heck are you yelling? We can all hear you fine." Halt said when Gilan knocked urgently on Halt's

"Halt! You're alive!" Gilan had yelled, smiling.

Halt had raised an eyebrow at Gilan. "You thought I was dead?"

Gilan nodded, still smiling with relief.

""Why?"

* * *

><p>"You <em>must<em> kill him this time. Don't mess up like you did last time." Sarah said to the shadow man. She was starting to doubt whether he was worth it, for, though he was an assasin who's skills could more than equal any human's, he was a novice, and shadow men don't work cheap.

"He wasn't there. It was someone else." The shadow man said. His voice was like wind. A growl that became fairly annoying after awhile.

"It wasn't someone else. It was _his_ cabin." Sarah said. She was aware that she sounded like a whiny child, but she couldn't bring herself to care.

THe shadow man shook his head.

"He'll be at the castle _now,_ of course. He'll be reporting that someone enteded his cabin last night." Sarah said. "Don't fail me this time."

* * *

><p>Halt was staring at Gilan.<p>

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Gilan asked.

"My first apprentice is no better than a teenage girl." Halt responded. "Listening to rumors and such."

"Seriously, Gil." Will said, laughing a little. "You shouldn't believe everything you hear."

Gilan glared at Will. "It didn't seem like a rumor."

Halt and Will both raised one eyebrow at Gilan.

"Don't look at me like that!" Gilan said.

* * *

><p><strong>The reason why 22 is like this...I've been reading a LOT of Stephen King lately. A LOT.<strong>


	23. Cat

**23. Cat**

The cat was a stray. Will at least knew this much about it. It's black fur was rather mangy, and it wasn't wearing a collar. Such things don't always mean that cats are strays, but when they've been stalking you for two days, there's a pretty good chance that they have no owner.

Will was becoming a little more on-edge than usual, probably from the fact that he knew the cat was somewhere, watching him, probably planning on killing him. He tried to tell himself not to think about things like that, but it was so difficult.

Will was looking through the trees as he walked to his cabin, trying to see the cat. He couldn't, of course, as the cat actually wasn't watching him at that particular moment, but Will couldn't have known that.

Will entered his cabin, wondering if the cat was still watching him. Then he saw it, laying on the couch, staring at him with its green cat-eyes. Will slowly backed toward the door, but the cat was already standing up, walking towards him.

Will lunged for the door, but the cat was quicker. It pounced for him, and Will felt its claws pierce his neck before—

-He woke up. Gasping, Will felt the back of his neck, felt the trickle of blood there. He got out of bed to go treat it, heart racing, wondering fearfully how he could have gotten the wound.

He failed to see the thorn on his bed.

The wound was small, tiny even, too small to be from a cat, but Will, who had really never been close to a cat, didn't know this. In his mind, the cat was very real and was able to give him wounds even in his dreams.

Which is why, a few months later, when Horace found a black kitten and offered it to Will, Will's response was, "Horace, get that monster away from me! I do _not _need it trying to murder me!" And then he slammed the door of his cabin right in Horace's face.

Horace tried to raise one eyebrow at the door. "I think Will is under too much pressure." He said to himself.

The kitten meowed, as if in agreement.

Horace smiled at the kitten. "I'm glad you agree with me." He said as he started the walk out of the forest.

Will never trusted black cats ever again. Whenever something bad happened to Horace, he would say, "It's because of that cat you insist on keeping." Whenever something bad happened to Cassandra, it was, "This wouldn't have happened if Horace would just get rid of that cat."

And whenever something bad happened to anyone else, Will would ask them, "Have you seen a black cat recently?"

The scratch on Will's neck scarred, because Will would always be picking at it. If anyone happened to ask him about it, he would say, "I survived an attack from a vicious creature."

The person asking would usually not believe him.


	24. No Time

Will and Horace were out of time. They had been given one hour to go into town and buy Halt some coffee and the hour was up and they were freaking out.

"Maybe he hasn't noticed that an hour has passed yet." Horace said.

"Yeah. Maybe he transformed into a magical unicorn too." Will responded.

"Do you think that could happen?"

Will looked at Horace. "Of course not! God, why are you such an idiot?" Will was pretty stressed out.

"You don't have to be mean about it…" Horace said.

"No! There's no time to not be mean! We're late and Hat is going to kill us and…This is all _your_ fault!"

"What? How is it _my_ fault?" Horace asked.

"You were the one who just _had_ to stop to pet the puppies that that guy was selling." Will said.

"They were adorable! Don't you tell me that they weren't adorable!" Horace said.

"I hope the one that bit you gave you rabies." Will said.

"Well, I hope that, um…You get struck by…An iceberg!" Horace said.

"How the hell would I get struck by an iceberg?"

"Well…You could be swimming…In the ocean and…An iceberg could form…Right on top of you…"

Will rolled his eyes. "You're so stupid, Horace."

Horace couldn't respond, as they had reached the cabin, where Halt was standing on his porch, waiting.

"Where have you two been?" Halt asked, in an irritable tone.

"We were getting coffee, just like you asked." Horace said, not understanding how Halt could be so stupid.

"Yes Horace, but why did it take you an hour and twenty minutes?" Halt asked.

"Well…" Horace started.

Will cut him off. "It was Horace's fault. He wanted to stop to look at puppies."

Horace elbowed Will in the stomach, making Will fall on the ground.

Halt rolled his eyes, grabbed the coffee beans that Horace was holding and went inside, muttering about how retired rangers should be able to get their coffee on time.

Will stood up. "Well…We're still alive…Retirement must have mellowed him…"

And then something happened that would baffle the ranger and the knight for years to come. Somehow, a second floor appeared in Halt's house and, somehow, Halt managed to pour coffee, scalding hot, onto Will out of an upstairs window.

Neither of them ever understood how Halt made the coffee so fast.


	25. Trouble Lurking

**A quarter of the way through this challenge! Wooh! So, I've been reading A Game of Thrones lately and that fact is the only way I can explain where the beginning o this story came from...**

* * *

><p><strong>25. Trouble Lurking<strong>

"I can feel it." Will said dramatically. "Trouble is lurking."

"You always think trouble is lurking, my lord." Horace replied. "Somehow, it never is."

"I can _feel _it, Sir Horace!" Will said. "Trouble!"

"My lord, it's just that…this feel like just another bout of paranoia…" Horace said, somewhat uncertainly.

"Are you questioning your king?" Will said, rising from his seat.

"Will, he's only saying that you've been known to have fits of paranoia, in which you send your armies to some distant land for nothing, leaving your castle completely unguarded." Alyss said.

"That's completely true, name of actor playing king." Horace said.

Will and Alyss stared at Horace.

After a moment, Horace looked up from his script. "Um…Will? It's your line, you know."

"Horace…you were supposed to say…" Alyss started. "Um…Will, would you explain it to Horace?"

"You were supposed to say, 'that's completely true, Will.' You were actually supposed to say the actual name of the actor playing the king, which…is me…Will…"

"Oh…" Horace said. "See, I was wondering why you guys were doing that, but…Oh..."

Will turned to Gilan, who was standing offstage. "What do you want us to do now."?"

Gilan looked at Will. "I can't even put in words how awful that was…"

"Well if _somebody_ wasn't such an idiot…" Will said, looking meaningfully at Horace.

"Hey!"

"No, you were all awful and _way_ over-dramatic. You were okay, Alyss, but…"

"Well…You need to write less dumb scripts, Gilan!" Will said.

"Yeah! We don't need to waste our time with some amateur's script!" Horace added.

"Yeah!"

Gilan closed his eyes. "You're both so…" He trailed off.

Will and Horace left the theater a few minutes later.

"We don't need Gilan!" Will said.

"Yeah! We'll find some other playwright who doesn't write all confusing-like!"

"Yeah!"

"Yeah!"

"Umm…Horace, do you know where we are?" Will said, glancing around them. He didn't recognize any of the streets and it was getting dark.

"Nope. Just some alley."

"This doesn't feel good…" Will said, looking around nervously. "Feels like there's…trouble lurking."

Horace looked at Will. "You're more of an idiot than Gilan."

"That coming from Mr. 'name of actor playing king.'"

"It was an honest mistake! At least I don't set up conversations where I can use lines from my script!"

"At least I'm not an idiot!"

"I'd rather be an idiot than a ranger!"

Will gasped. "Take that back!"

"No!"

"I'm telling Halt that you said that."

Horace's eyes grew wide. "You wouldn't!"

"Try me!"

* * *

><p>"And then these two huge guys appeared and, um…demanded that we give them all of that money that you gave us." Will told Halt.<p>

Halt closed his eyes. "I sent the two of you to the store. How did you end up rehearsing a play with Gilan and Alyss?"

"Well, um…We were at the store and Gilan showed us this script that he wrote and told us that he was planning to maybe perform it publicly at the theater and he told us that he needed actors. We thought it was a great idea!"

Halt stared at them. "What did you really do with all of my money?"

"Well, um…We definitely _did not_ buy a bunch of candy." Horace said.

Will elbowed Horace.

Horace then elbowed Will back.

And then the two ended up in an elbowing fight.

Halt sighed and left the room. "You both are going to pay me back!" He said on his departure.


	26. Tears

**So, um...I just saw Les Miserables with my sister and friend Kaleigh...Kaleigh was really annoying. But the moovie was really good. And sad. My sister was crying the entire time. I'm not even exaggerating! She started crying when Anne Hathaway showed up and was crying for the entire rest of the movie. Anyways, since this theme is tears, and that movie was very sad and made me pretty sad (SPOILER ALERT! Gavroche dies!), I decided to write this theme based off of that. **

* * *

><p>Will looked at Gilan, smiling. "Wow! That was a <em>great<em> movie!" They had just seen Les Miserables, and Will thought that it was great.

Gilan nodded and looked at Will. There were tears on his cheeks.

"Oh my gosh, Gil! Are you crying?" Will said.

"It's not my fault!" Gilan said. "That movie was really sad! When Gavroche died…" Gilan trailed off, sobbing.

Will closed his eyes, smiling. "You are such a teenage girl."

"No I am not!" Gilan said. "Come on, you can't tell me that this movie didn't make you a little sad!"

"Yeah….A _little. _I didn't start crying, though!"

Gilan glared at Will. "You're just insensitive and…emotionally imbalanced!"

Will raised an eyebrow at Gilan. "I may be insensitive, but…I think you're a little more emotionally imbalanced that I am."

Gilan continued glaring at Will. "I'm not…I'm not emotionally imbalanced!"

"Whatever you say…" Will said.

Gilan glared at Will once more, then got up to leave.

A few minutes later, Will followed.


	27. Foreign

**So, I recently read _Slaughterhouse 5_, and in this book, it mentions this poem that I thought was pretty neat. It kind of stretches all the way to infinity, whihc is one of the neat things about it. Anyways...**

* * *

><p><em>My name is Yon Yonsen<br>I work in Wisconsin  
>I work in a lumber mill there.<br>The people I meet when I walk down the street  
>They say, "What's your name?"<br>And I say,  
>My name is Yon Yonsen<br>I work in Wisconsin  
>I work in a lumbermill there...<em>

"Will, where did you hear that song?" Horace asked. Will had randomly started singing it as they walked down the street and it kind of was creeping Horace out.

"Oh, it just kind of popped into my head. Seemed like a good walking down the street song." Will responded.

Horace stared at Will, stopping his walking for a moment. "Um…So, where in the world is Wisconsin?"

"Wisconsin? What's that?" Will asked, looking back at Horace.

"You kind of mentioned it in your song…" Horace said.

"Oh!" Will said. "I dunno. Some kind of foreign place, I guess. Where there are lumber mills."

Horace continued staring at Will. "So it's like a place that you just made up?"

Will raised an eyebrow at Horace. "No, Horace, of course not." He continued walking.

Horace put his hands over his face. After a moment, he continued walking.

It's not like it really matter where Will had heard of a place with a name like _Wisconsin_, of all things.


	28. Sorrow

"_Nobody knows the trouble I've seen.  
>Nobody knows my sorrow."<em>

"Horace, will you please stop singing that song?" Will said in an exasperated tone of voice.

Horace stared at Will. "No! I won't ever stop singing until somebody knows about my sorrow!"

"You don't have any sorrow, Horace," Will said dully.

"I do too! I have so much sorrow that it literally flows out of my soul!"

Will stared at Horace. "It literally flows out of your soul?"

Horace nodded. "It literally flows out of my soul."

Will shook his head. "Just…Please do not sing any more."

"But, if I don't sing, I'll have more sorrow that will flow out of my soul and my soul might maybe explode!"

Will looked at Horace. "Then your soul can explode."

Horace attempted to raise an eyebrow at Will. "You've been spending _way_ too much time around Halt."


	29. Happiness

In some ways, Carter reminded Will of a puppy. He always got distracted by every little thing and he was completely random half the time. Needless to say, Will was beginning to get sick of having to pull Carter out of the river or apologize to people whenever he forgot to pay for things or tell the angry drunk men that Carter didn't _mean_ to insult them by saying that he was surprised they'd ever found wives.

Will was also sick of Horace constantly telling him that he was beginning to act like Halt. He was _not_ acting at all like Halt!

"Will?" Carter's voice removed Will from his thoughts.

"What, Carter?" Will responded.

"What makes you happy?"

Will stared at his apprentice for a moment, one eyebrow raised. "When you don't ask stupid questions."


	30. Under the Rain

"Halt, I'm bored," Gilan said loudly.

Halt sighed. His apprentice was _always_ bored. "Go practice something."

Gilan looked at Halt. "I_ can't _go practice something because it's _raining_ outside."

Halt raised an eyebrow at him. "Rain isn't going to kill you."

Gilan thought for a moment. "Yeah, but…the lightning might."

Halt looked at his apprentice for a moment. "There isn't any lightning."

Gilan turned to look out the window. "Yup…There sure _isn't_." He continued staring at the window expectantly. After a few moments, he sighed and turned back around. "Well…I was _hoping_ that I could trigger lighting but _apparently_ I can't."

Halt stared at his apprentice. "Just go practice."

Gilan groaned, but got to his feet.

As he left, Halt thought he heard Gilan muttering something about sorcerers who didn't know anything about controlling weather.


	31. Flowers

**So, the things that Will says in this chapter about flowers are pretty much exactly what my friend Logan said on Valentine's Day. So.**

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><p>"Horace, you know what I don't get?" Will asked his friend.<p>

Horace looked at Will. "Everything?"

Will glared at Horace. "No. I don't get why girls_ love_ getting flowers so much. It's like, 'Here, watch these die.' and they're like, 'Yay, plant death!"

Horace tried to raise an eyebrow at Will, though he was unsuccessfull. "You forgot to get Alyss flowers, didn't you?"

"How was I supposed to know that it was our anniversary?"

"_She _knew."

"Yeah, but she works in a place where there are calenders. Do you know how many calenders there are in the woods? None. At all."

Horace stared at Will for a second before shaking his head and walking away.

Will then went to the market and bought some flowers for Alyss.

And two weeks later they were completely dead.


	32. Night

Will was walking home one night when he had an uncontrollable feeling that he no longer had an apprentice. He just shrugged it off. After all, he'd lent Carter to Gilan for the day so that hopefully Carter could learn something. Even if he _was_ in trouble or, possibly, dead, it wouldn't be_ Will's_ fault.

Then he reached his cabin and realized why he'd had that feeling. _Apparently_, Gilan had come by the cabin with Carter and left the kid there. By himself. With no one else around.

Will sighed. It was no wonder the cabin was on fire!

He watched the flames for a few minutes before realizing that his apprentice was probably somewhere inside. He was also probably in danger of dying soon.

Will sighed again. Now he'd have to go inside and risk his life _once again_ just to save his idiot apprentice.

He charged inside and found that the inside of the cabin was completely filled with smoke and stuff like that, so he came back out.

* * *

><p>"…And you just left him in there?" Gilan asked, horrified, a few days later.<p>

Will nodded. "It's okay, though. He climbed out of a window. Wasn't even hurt."

"I can't believe that you just…left your apprentice in a burning building. He could have died!"

"_I _could've died too!" Will protested. "Anyways, it was his own fault. _Apparently _it was too cold and dark in the cabin and he was trying to get it warmer and brighter."

Gilan shook his head. "I don't understand why anyone thought it was a good idea for you to have an apprentice. You're totally sadistic!"

"I don't think you understand what that word means."

"I don't think _you _understand what that word means."

Will stared at Gilan for a second. "Anyways, moral of the story: Carter does not need to be left on his own at my cabin. Ever. And _especially _at night. And _especially especially_ when it's a cold night.


	33. Expectations

**I am super excited for the twelfth Rangers book! I have a picture on my phone of the cover and sometimes I just...I just stare at it. It's so beautiful. Okay, so it's called The Royal Ranger and it's going to be about Will's first apprentice, the first girl ranger. _And_ the apprentice on the cover has a sling!_ And_ this all takes pace sixteen years after It's About Time! So who's a person that's royal, a girl, could feasibly know how to use a sling, _and_ could be the right age to be Will's apprentice. Horace and Cassandra's daughter. It has to be Horace and Cassandra's daughter.  
>I was telling Megan about this and we started talking about what would happen if Will let her get killed...So...<strong>

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><p>Horace wasn't <em>expecting<em> his daughter to become Will's first apprentice, the first ever female ranger. Once he realized that it was going to happen, though, he was fine with it. He didn't really think the girl could have a better mentor, although he used the term "better" in only the loosest meanings.

Horace also wasn't _expecting_ them to go on a mission only six months into her training. He objected to this at first, of course. The usual arguments: She could get killed! Do you really think Will is qualified to look after her? You do realize she's a princess? Eventually, though, he had to agree that it would be good for her and Will probably could keep her safe.

Horace definitely wasn't _expecting_ Will to come back alone.

* * *

><p>Will wasn't <em>expecting<em> his first apprentice to be Horace and Cassandra's daughter. She did have talent, though, and…stuff. Once Horace stopped breathing down his neck, he realized that the girl had potential. Of course, she needed some practice first before she had any real talent.

Will wasn't _expecting_ to have to go on a mission only a few months into her training. He decided that it would be a good experience for his apprentice, a mission. Besides, he could definitely protect her if things went wrong.

Will wasn't _expecting_ her to…to get killed.

And Will certainly wasn't _expecting_ Horace to punch him in face.


	34. Stars

"Will, what are stars made of?" Carter asked. They were practicing tracking at night and Carter was staring at the sky.

Will glanced at his apprentice. "Why aren't you looking at the ground?"

Carter looked at Will. "Well, I mean, they're just so weird! I mean, they're just spots of light in the sky!"

Will shook his head. "We're tracking, Carter. Not stargazing."

"But what are stars _made_ of?"

Will rolled his eyes. Carter wasn't going to focus until he got an answer. "They're made of fire."

"Be serious!" Carter said. "Fire can't _float_!"

Will raised one eyebrow at his apprentice. "And _some_ apprentices can't _focus_."


	35. Hold My Hand

**I'm sitting in my friend Megan's living room right now with her standing rihgt behind me and her cat sleeping on a chair in a very awkward position. After being stuck on this one for awhile, she helped me write it. It's very short because I didn't feel like making it longer. Megan thinks I should, but this isn't her story, is it? Even if it was her idea.**

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><p>"Halt, I'm scared," Gilan said. It was the first mission he'd been on as Halt's apprentice and it was so intense that Gilan could almost hear the intense music playing in the background. But not quite because there really wasn't any intense music.<p>

Halt raised one eyebrow at Gilan. "What do you want me to do about it?"

"Will you hold my hand?"

Halt closed his eyes. "No, Gilan."

"Why not?" Gilan said with a slight whine in his voice.

"Rangers aren't allowed to be scared."


	36. Precious Treasure

**Oh my gosh Book 12! Basically, this story is every rumor I've heard about it so far, or almost all of them...maybe. Mainly three: 1. Alyss dies in terrible accident. 2. Halt decides to give Will an apprentice to male him less depressed. 3. The apprentice is Horace and Cassandra's daughter.**

**Actually, the third one is pretty much confirmed because the title of the book is The Royal Ranger...And it ha in fact been confirmed that Will's apprentice is the first female ranger...In fact, the third rumor might have actually been confirmed officially...I'm too lazy to go check...**

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><p>"Will, I feel like you've forgotten what's important." Horace said carefully. He was standing behind the chair that Will was sitting in because Will didn't want any company. Ever again.<p>

Will turned around and looked at Horace for a moment, then shook his head and turned back around.

"Seriously, Will. We kind of need you. Um…There are multiple issues happening right now and…Many citizen people are unhappy because they're being robbed and…Cassandra kind of thinks that the treasuries will become a target, which would be great for whoever stole it, but…Really bad for us, and…Yeah." Horace stumbled over almost every word because…Will scared everyone now. Horace knew that Will was just mourning and depressed, but…He was very explosive in his depression.

"Go away, Horace." Will said in a very much depressed kind of voice.

Horace opened his mouth to respond, but couldn't think of anything to say. "Well, I can't really leave until I've gotten an actual response out of you, and, um…"Horace tried to figure out something else to say.

"I haven't forgotten what's important, Horace. _Alyss_ was important. Right now, that's all that matters." Will's voice cracked at the end of the sentence and turned into a sob.

Horace decided to leave then.

* * *

><p>"He's mourning, Halt." Horace said.<p>

"I knew he was mourning, Horace! I didn't send you to find out what was wrong with him. I sent you to try to give him a feeling of duty. The stories of all those people who'd been robbed and of the people whose homes had been burned and all those other stories I gave you got nothing out of him?"

"Well…I may have forgotten most of the stories. And I may have also left out most of the details."

Halt closed his eyes and shook his head.

"I just…Will is really kind of scary now. It's like he plans to shoot anyone who bothers him!"

Halt shook his head again. "Will doesn't need to be alone in a room by himself! Why everyone is letting him is beyond me."

"He's _scary_!"

"Will isn't going to shoot anyone, Horace." Halt said. "He really needs a big distraction. Something that will occupy his time and make him think of things other than himself."

Horace looked at Halt expectantly.

"How old is your daughter, Horace?" Halt asked.

"Uh…Almost fifteen." Horace wondered what this had to do with anything.

"Well, I was planning on waiting a little longer, but we need Will back now, so any problems that people have with this can't be helped." Halt started walking to the door.

Horace got to his feet. "What? What are you talking about, Halt? What problems would…What?"

Halt turned and looked at Horace. "Your daughter wants to be a ranger, correct?"

"What…" Horace's eyes widened in understanding. "No, no, no, no, no. I refuse to allow this! The notion itself is insane! Maddie isn't just any person, she's royalty, she's precious! Even if she weren't, Will isn't in his right mind! And who's ever heard of a female ranger? You can't just…" Horace trailed off as he saw the expression on Halt's face.

"Will is the best, Horace. He won't let anything happen to your daughter."

Horace was silent as Halt left, considering everything. After a few moments, he left to tell Maddie that things would go her way after all.

* * *

><p>Will slumped in his chair as he heard the door open. Did no one understand the concept of no company ever again?<p>

He heard the door close, then Halt's voice. "Good news, Will. You're getting an apprentice."

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><p><strong>By the way, I really don't like this story, but I'm posting it anyway because it's all I can think of for this theme and I want to move on.<strong>

**Also, I wrote this story like a month ago, but I didn't post it because I read a Harry Potter story called Harry's New Home that was so fantastically well-written that it made me feel unqualified to post anything. So yeah...I really recommend that you go read it, it's really good!**

**Quick plot summary: The Dursleys are a bit more abusive than they are in canon, and Snape finds out how abusive they are and goes to Dumbledore about it. He tells Dumbledore that there is no way Harry is living with these people anymore. Dumbledore tells Snape to figure out who Harry will live with. Then, when Snape presents his ideas to Dumbledore, which are basically just guidelines of the people Harry will live with, like they shouldn't have any other children, or be a young couple that has the potential to have children..."A young couple, then? No, young couples breed!" And Dumbledore basically says, "Okay, you fit the bill." And Snape just has to deal with it.**


	37. Eyes

**Okay, this is technically two stories, because I wrote one and didn't really like it so I wrote another one, but then I reread the first one and it really wasn't that bad, but I couldn't decide which to post...So I decided on both. By the way, the first story is the second that I wrote, the second story is the first that I wrote.**

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><p>"I spy with my little eye something that is…green." Horace said. He looked at Will expectantly.<p>

"Is it my cloak?" Will asked in an irritated voice. They were lost in the forest, trying to find something familiar, probably going to die if they didn't, but Horace _still_ thought it was a good idea to play I Spy.

"No, Will. Just because someone mentions the color green, that doesn't _automatically_ mean they're looking at your cloak."

"Well, the past three times you've done my cloak, so it seemed like the best answer."

"Well, you're walking in front of me, so of course I'll see your cloak."

"Well you're stupid."

"Well you're a fun-sucker."

Will turned around and raised one eyebrow at Horace. "You do realize that this is a serious situation?"

"What?"

"Really? We're lost in the woods, Horace!"

Horace looked around. "No we're not."

"Yes we are! We've been wandering the woods for hours because of that fact!"

"Really? I thought we were just walking."

Will closed his eyes. "Yes, because everyone goes walking for hours through unfamiliar woods just because they feel like it!" He said sarcastically.

"But I've known where we were this entire time."

Will looked at Horace sharply. "What?"

"I've known where we were this entire time," Horace said in a louder tone.

"Then why didn't you say something?"

"Because, I though you knew where we were too."

* * *

><p>"You know what would be disturbing?" Will said to Horace. They were skipping stones on a lake, or rather, Will was skipping stones and Horace was throwing rocks.<p>

"What?" Horace tried to throw his stone flatter, but it still just sank.

"Getting a paper cut on your eye."

Horace winced. "Why would you even bring that up?"

"I dunno. It just occurred to me," Will said as he threw another stone, which skipped a few times before sinking to the bottom of the lake.

Horace shook his head. "I don't want to be thinking about things happening to my eyes while I'm trying to focus on skipping stones."

"You aren't skipping stones, Horace. You're throwing rocks."

"Exactly why I need to _focus_." Horace said as he threw another rock, which promptly sank and landed on a turtle that just so happened to be swimming past at that exact moment. He didn't notice, of course.

Will rolled his eyes and threw a stone that skipped four times before it finally sank. Will cast a meaningful look at Horace. "You don't need _focus_ to skip stones. You need _talent_.

"Well maybe I'd have some talent if you didn't keep distracting me with creepy eye…things."

"Well maybe I'd stop distracting you if you had some talent."


	38. Abandoned

"Horace, you're such an awful person!" Will said as he ran up to Horace angrily.

"Whaaaat?" Horace said, in a rather high-pitched voice that matched a questioning statement like whaaaat?

"You abandoned me in the forest all by myself!" Will said. "Do you know what I had to do to get out of there?"

"You do know you're a ranger, right?"

"I'm not stupid."

"So why couldn't you just…Follow where I went? I've seen you guys track stuff before, I know how creepy good at it you guys are."

"Well, Horace, all of my training was stolen recently."

Horace tried(unsuccessfully) to raise one eyebrow at Will. "I don't think that's—"

Will interrupted Horace, saying, "Stop making that face, only trained rangers can do that!"

"Couldn't you do it before you finished trai—"

Will interrupted again, "Horace, we have more important things to worry about, such as, um….The thief who keeps stealing our training!"

"It isn't possible to steal _training_!"

Will raised an eyebrow at Horace. "Oh, isn't it?"

"Yes!"

Will shook his head. "Halt told me you wouldn't be any help."

"Halt did not tell you that! For the past hour you've been lost in the woods because _apparently_, I abandoned you there! There wasn't any time for him to tell you that!"

"What? Rangers _don't_ get lost in the woods." Will said.

"You just told me—"

"I told you that someone has been going around stealing training, which might just lead to a problem in the future, foreshadow, foreshadow."

Horace closed his eyes and shook his head. "That's it. I'm done trying to figure this out."

The Gilan ran up to the pair, looking very much as if he had just finished panicking. "Will! The thief got to Halt!"

Will's eyes widened, and he fell to his knees, breathing heavily. "Noooooo!" He yelled into the sky in a very dramatic way, then started sobbing. A second later, Gilan joined him.

Horace took a few steps away from the two rangers, trying to figure out the best course of action. After about two and a half seconds, he ran away as fast as he could, abandoning the two rangers in their misery.

After he felt that he was sufficiently far away, Horace slowed his pace to a walk.

He felt a bright flash of pain before everything went dark.

When he woke up, all of his training had been stolen.


	39. Dreams

**Okay, this is really short because I wrote it right after I wrote that last one and I was just really tired out from writing.**

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><p>"Oh my gosh, Will, I just had the <em>weirdest<em> dream." Carter said pretty much as soon as he woke up. He didn't have time to fully realize that he was outside, or to register the charred remains of what had been Will's cabin. And he certainly didn't have time to remember what had happened the previous night.

Will was standing in front of his cabin, trying not to blame his apprentice for the loss of his house, but he found it kind of hard when his apprentice said ridiculously cheerful things like, 'I just had the weirdest dream.' We really can't blame Will for responding with, "Dreams are for winners, Carter."


	40. Rated

**Hey, it's been awhile, hasn't it? Yeah. School's started, which sucks. I started high school. It's exactly like junior high. Right now, I'm just trying to make this story look longer. Okay, done now.**

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><p>"Hey, Horace, you know what's over-rated?"<p>

Horace sighed it was Will, of course, probably quickly approaching, and being Will. He'd thought he'd be able to hide in the lake. He should have known better. "What?"

"Movies. Why are all the movies that I want to see right now rated R?"

"Probably for language, although it could be for graphic violence."

"No, they're rated R so that I can't go see them because I'm not old enough! The movie-rating people just _hate_ me!"

"I'm pretty sure they don't—"

"Shut up, Horace, I'm ranting here!"

Horace wondered how the Rangers were doing, having someone like Will as their future.


	41. Teamwork

The first annual Ranger kickball game did not have very many willing participants. This is because most Rangers felt that they should try to be dignified. Kickball is not a dignified game at all.

Nevertheless, Will and Gilan thought that it would be fun to drag as many people as they possibly could into playing.

They managed to get all of the more weak-willed Rangers to join the game, as well as the ones who thought that it wasn't worth it to argue with Will and Gilan for twenty minutes about the joys of kickball.

Halt, of course, didn't even bother arguing. He just sort of glowered at them and they decided that it would be a bad idea to try and argue with him.

That wasn't the end of it, though.

When the game started, Will and Gilan were team captains. After a game of rock, paper, scissors that ended in Will accusing Gilan of cheating and Gilan saying that it wasn't actually possible to cheat at rock, paper, scissors, they started choosing their teams.

Gilan picked Halt.

Crowley told Gilan that Halt wasn't actually playing and therefore couldn't be on Gilan's team.

Gilan said that of course Halt could be on his team, it was a free country.

Crowley said that the fact that it was a free country had nothing to do with the situation.

Gilan said for Crowley to stop being such a fun-sucker and just make Halt play.

And they argued like that for about twenty minutes, until Crowley told Will that Gilan had forfeited his turn.

Will chose Halt.

Crowley told Will that Halt couldn't possibly play because he was getting older and older people had to keep their dignity.

This caused Will to laugh for like two minutes straight and he seriously almost suffocated from not being able to breathe.

Will said that Halt better play or he'd be called an old man for the rest of his life.

Crowley said that Halt really didn't particularly care what people called him, or hadn't Will noticed?

They continued arguing like this for about twenty minutes until Crowley threatened to pick someone else as team captain.

Of course, there were an odd number of people so the teams were off, with Will having more players than Gilan.

Gilan said that Halt had to be on his team now because it wasn't fair if Will had more players.

Crowley, completely frustrated from the entire hour-long process of just picking teams, told Halt that he had to play.

While he was gone, Will and Gilan shared an epic high-five that totally encompassed everything that teamwork is for.

And then Halt told Crowley that he couldn't really make him do anything, so the high-five was actually for nothing.


	42. Standing Still

**Today is SuperHappyAmazingMegaUpload Day! I have eleven chapters of different stories to upload today! Long story on why I had to wait until today to upload them...Pretty much, we have a stupid Internet plan. So! SuperHappyAmazingMegaUpload Day!**

**SuperHappyAmazingMegaUpload Day Tally: 1**

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><p><strong>Standing Still<strong>

"So this week the theme is Standing Still." Will said.

"What?" Horace questioned.

"We have to do something involving standing still." Will explained.

"No, I mean…This week? Our updates aren't even close to weekly."

Will was silent. "Yeah but I can't say…This update. It doesn't sound right."

Horace had to admit that this was true.

* * *

><p>It would be fair to say that Horace did not have the skills required for being a ranger. That usually was fine, as he was not a ranger. Sometimes, though, his lack of skills rather got in the way.<p>

For instance, when a person with a ranger's skill set finds themselves near a swarm of bees, which wouldn't happen anyway because they have a ranger's skill set, they can just stand perfectly still for as long as it takes the bees to move on.

When Horace found himself near a swarm of bees, he could not stand still for long enough.

He was okay, though.

* * *

><p>Horace looked up at the story. "I don't like it."<p>

Will snorted. "You wouldn't."

"Seriously, it makes me seem like a loser!"

"You _are_ a loser."

Horace glared at Will. "I'm sure you would have problems with it if it painted _you_ in a negative light."

Will raised an eyebrow at Horace. "Unlike _some_ people, I can deal with being made fun of. Which is why my story will be _twice_ as entertaining."

"Oh, you are on!"

* * *

><p>Will knew that carnivals were evil. It was a fact ingrained is his head that would never go away ever. Carnivals were freaky and ridiculous and <em>scary<em>. And Will knew that he would never go to a carnival in his life.

But _apparently_ Will just _had_ to go on a mission at a carnival because _apparently_ some people just _had_ to start kidnapping people.

Will's money was on the carnival demons, which couldn't be defeated by mere mortals. They had to be defeated by, like, gods or something. Will didn't know. All he knew is that, whatever _certain_ narcissistic Rangers might think, Rangers were _not_ gods. They were just the closest thing ordinary people could get to being gods.

As Will walked into the carnival, he hoped that being a Ranger was enough.

He had to admit, the carnival didn't _quite_ look evil. Not _pure_ evil, at least. In certain situations, he supposed it could be quite menacing, but at the moment looked like a rather nice place. Colorful lights and cheerful people everywhere.

"That is just what they want you to be thinking!" Will shouted, mainly in his head.

He continued walking through the carnival, darting around everywhere in a very paranoid manner.

Eventually, he tripped on a crack in the sidewalk, dashed his head against the ground, and passed out.

When he woke up, he was told by Horace that the entire mission had been a plan to get him to go to a carnival.

He told Horace that he was an idiot.

* * *

><p>"That's <em>not<em> fair!" Horace said.

Will looked up at the story. "I fail to see how it's not fair."

Horace rolled his eyes. "First of all, it wasn't even about standing still!"

"It was about a Ranger! Part of being a Ranger is standing still. So your reasoning is stupid."

"Second of all, you don't even look that stupid in the story!"

"I look paranoid. It's practically the same thing."

Horace rolled his eyes.

Will rolled his eyes in an exaggerated, mocking way.

"The worst part is that your story is going to win because it cheated and didn't stick to the theme." Horace said, frowning.

Will raised one eyebrow. "Sticking to the theme is one of the judging criteria, you know."

"Really?"

"No. Just general awesome-ness. So…you're gonna lose."

Horace opened his mouth, then closed it.

Will grinned, knowing that, for now, he had won.

"What if we had a standing-still contest?"

Will grinned harder, knowing that he had won for pretty much the entire foreseeable future. "Okay."


	43. Dying

**SuperHappyMegaAmazingUpload Day Tally: 2**

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><p><strong>Dying<strong>

When Horace broke his arm, Will wasn't exactly surprised. After all, Horace was a knight and knights got hurt like that all the time.

But when, the very next day, Gilan told Will that he had dislocated his rib, Will was a bit surprised.

"How do you even manage to do that?" Will asked.

"Well, I was brushing my teeth and then I started choking and coughing, and I fell down, as as I was falling, I kind of twisted around…And I dislocated my rib."

"…Maybe you should see a doctor."

And then, the next day, Alyss got sick with the flu. Will was concerned, of course, but it was only the flu. Also, she was the third of his friends to be out of action in so many days. But Will was like, whatever, they'll get over it. Of course, what he actually said was more like, "I hope they're all okay…They probably are…I hope none of them die…"

And then, on the fourth day, Cassandra got the flu.

"How can she have the flu? She's the princess!"

Horace stared at Will. "Uh…Even the princess can get the flu, Will…"

"Yeah but…All of my friends are dying!"

"I don't think any of us are actually—"

"All of you! I bet Halt's next, then Jenny, then Pauline, then Crowley, then Malcolm, then Tug, then Erak, then Svengal, then those guys from Arridi, then those guys from Nihon-Ja—"

"Did you seriously forget their names?"

"Then Bryn, then Alda, then Jerome—

"They aren't you're friends."

"Then Morgarath—"

"He's especially not your friend. And also already dead."

"Then…then…then… um…" Will came to a stop, unable to think of anyone else.

"George." Horace offered.

Will stared at Horace blankly for a second. "Right! George! See, all of my friends are _dying_!"

Horace stared at Will. "First of all—never mind, I don't feel like arguing about how it's perfectly excusable that you _forgot_ about George—"

"It is."

"…You're a drama queen."

Will gasped angrily. "Fine. But don't blame me when you and everyone else are dead!"


	44. Two Roads

**SuperHappyMegaAmazingUpload Day Tally: 3**

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><p><strong>Two Roads<strong>

Having been on a mission with Will for the past week, Horace was somewhat used to the ranger's decision-making strategies. Or lack of them. However, standing at a crossroads for twenty minutes was causing his patience to wear a little thin.

"Have you almost made a decision?" Horace said, rather irritably.

Will glanced up from his position on the ground. He had an array of decision-making devices (coins, playing cards, the odd satanic talisman) spread out in front of him. "Yeah, nearly."

Horace sighed. Will had said that five minutes when Horace had asked for the second time. "Seriously, it's been twenty minutes and this isn't even the first time we've seen this exact same crossroads! They lead to the same place! We learned this on the 'going' trip!"

Will looked at Horace. "Yeah, but what if on one of the roads there's an amazing, life-changing experience and we _miss_ it because we took the wrong one?"

Horace rolled his eyes. "That's it, I'm taking this one." He said, riding his horse to the path on the left.

"Horace!" Will said. After a moment of debate, he gathered up his decision-devices, jumped on Tug, and went after Horace.

* * *

><p><em>Woosh woosh woosh<em>

The silence of the right path was broken as a blue box appeared out of nowhere.

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><p><strong>I really could not help the Doctor Who reference...<strong>


	45. Illusion

**SuperHappyMegaAmazingUpload Day Tally: 4**

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><p><strong>Illusion<strong>

When Will found Horace in the middle of the woods, he knew it had been a mistake to give him a Ranger cloak.

Horace looked at Will with what he thought was a sneaky expression. "Can you see me?"

"Are you still operating under the illusion that wearing that cloak makes you invisible."

"Are you still operating under the illusion that I was talking to you?"

Will raised one eyebrow at Horace. "I'm the only person here."

Horace gave a commendable effort at raising one eyebrow at Will. "So?"

Will rolled his eyes and left.

And Horace continued his conversation.

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><p><strong>Probably not the most original Illusion story, but it'll do.<strong>

** Also, without these author's notes and the title on the story, it's EXACTLY one hundred words. I thought that was neat.**


	46. Family

**Very, very short theme here...Wait...Dang it, only number 46! I wish this was number 50 because it's exactly 50 words long and that would just be perfect. Like seriously.**

**Anyways, second order of business: Lydia Skye, the guest reviewer that I love: GET AN ACCOUNT!  
>That probably came off ruder than I meant it. Oh well. Seriously though, I can't reply to your lovely reviews if you don't have an account. Also, I can't talk to you about Skyrim, which I played for four hours at my friends house and she's now getting me for Christmas because of you. And I can't tell you that positive reviews will NEVER be annoying to me. Ever. EVER.<strong>

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><p>Family<p>

"Horace, it occured to me recently that you're the closest thing to family I have." Will said.

"Nope." Horace said.

"What?"

"I am _not_ doing this." Horace said. Then he left.

Will stared after him, mouth agape. After about a minute, he closed his mouth. "Well, that was rude."

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><p><strong>Seriously, getting an account takes like five seconds (that's an understatement, but not a particularly huge one).<strong>


	47. Creation

**Creation**

"What if I used alchemy to fix it?" Carter asked d alchemy to fix it?", looking at the remains of Will's cabin.

"Alchemy isn't real, Carter," Will said, not even bothering to do the customary eyebrow-raise.

Carter attempted to raise an eyebrow at Will, but he hadn't perfected the expression yet. It was okay, Will hadn't noticed. "Alchemy _is_ real. It's a science."

Will had, in fact, noticed Carter's failure to do the signature Ranger expression. He just didn't show his exasperation at his apprentice show on his face. Of course, when that same apprentice was convinced that alchemy was real…It took a great deal of control for Will not to go to Crowley and ask him what the _hell_ he'd been thinking giving Will this apprentice. Will sighed. Crowley'd just tell him that it would be a good experience for both of them and Will was complaining for nothing.

Getting back to the situation at hand. "Who told you that alchemy is real?"

Carter was silent for a moment. "I dunno. It's just one of those facts that are universally accepted as true."

"No it's not," said Will.

"Yes it is," Carter said, nodding his head.

Will rolled his eyes. "Fine, use alchemy to fix it."

About twenty seconds later Carter had burned down the entire forest.

"How the heck did you create enough fire to burn down the _entire_ forest?" Will asked.

"It's not the entire forest," Carter said defensively.

"That wasn't my question."

Carter sighed. "I dunno…I told you alchemy was real."

Will face-palmed. Then he face-grounded because he tripped over a root while he was face-palming.

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Carter couldn't help laughing.


	48. Childhood

**So apparently I have an update bird now. So um...Probably you maybe can expect faster updates depending on how impatient that bird is. So far it seems very impatient.**

**In other news, I've almost lost what I think is my third to last baby tooth. I'm fourteen. The worst part about my baby teeth loving me so much and wanting to stay with me as long as possible is that when I was little and still believed in the tooth fairy, I only got money for about half of my teeth. The funny part is that my sister had lost all of her teeth by the time she was about five. Okay, that's an exaggeration, but still. When she was five, a lot of them were gone. Anyways, I think this is a rather fitting subject for this theme. So:**

* * *

><p>Childhood<p>

"Will, do you remember when we were kids?" Horace asked.

"No." Will said. "I am not talking about this with you."

"What? Why not?"

"You wouldn't talk about family with me."

Horace rolled his eyes. "That was completely cliché!"

Will raised one eyebrow at Horace. "This is _more_ cliché!"

Horace sniffed. "_Nothing_ I do is cliché."

This time, Will rolled his eyes. "Please. You're the most cliché person I know."

Horace glared at Will.

"See? Glaring is totally a cliché action."

Horace rolled his eyes.

"So is rolling your eyes."

"Come on! You rolled your eyes earlier!"

"_I'm_ not a cliché person."

* * *

><p><strong>Your face is cliché. (I'm talking to you, Megan.)<strong>


	49. Stripes

**Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand Jeff Strand**

* * *

><p>Stripes<p>

"Which do you like better? This one or this one?"

"They're the same thing!" Will said. Seriously, he'd heard horror stories about shopping with your girlfriend or just a girl friend, but he honestly hadn't thought that it would be this bad. Of course, Horace wasn't exactly Will's girlfriend.

Horace was holding up two very green ties that honestly looked pretty much identical. "They are not the same! This one," Horace held up the tie he was holding in his right hand, "has diagonal stripes going downwards, while this one," Horace held up the tie in his left hand, "has diagonal stripes going _upwards_."

"Oh my freaking goodness they are the same thing!" Wil said.

"Geez, impatient much? This is important, Will. This is the most important decision I will ever make in my life!" Horace said.

Will put his hands on his eyes and dragged them down his face. "We have been in this store for five hours."

"Because this is so important."

"The girls found their dresses in less than an hour. The other guys found their suits and ties in about five minutes! They all left _ages_ ago! Why am I even still here?"

Horace ignored Will, he was too busy holding each of the two ties up to his suit.

Ultimately, after another half hour had passed and Will had been sent to an asylum for his impatience-insanity, Horace decided on the downwards-striped tie.

* * *

><p><strong>So some of you might be wondering why my beginning AN was 'Jeff Strand' written over and over. Well...I'm in the middle of a withdrawal. See, I'm a little addictedobsessed with Jeff Strand and his writings. I have seven of his books on my kindle, two of which I haven't read yet. I loaned my kindle to my friend Megan so she could read three of those books (Books 1-3 of the Andrew Mayhem series) and she is taking so many forevers that I'm dying. Yesterday I went to Barnes and Noble, but they didn't have any books by him (because NO ONE sells print copies of his books) so I had to go to the Customer Service kiosk and actually TALK to someone and order a book by him (How to Rescue a Dead Princess) to hold me over until she's done. Unfortunately, I still have to wait until it actually gets to my house.**

**So I paid twelve dollars PLUS tax PLUS shipping for a total of about sixteen dollars and I actually had to _talk_ to someone! The things I do for Jeff Strand...**

**But the CS Guy and I did have a sort of funny conversation:**

**CS Guy: What's your shipping adress?  
>Me: 302 Red Bud Circle.<br>CS Guy: What? 302 Red...  
>Me: Bud...<br>CS Guy: _Blood?_  
>Me: No! <em>Bud.<br>_CS Guy: Okay, that is much less morbid.  
><strong>


	50. Breaking the Rules

**This is the fiftieth theme! Halfway done! Woooh!**

**So, for this momentous, halfway-there occasion, I have a particularly great story for a particularly great theme. Seriously, this is one of my favorite stories I've written for this challenge so far. I brought back Connery (Halt's third apprentice, if you haven't read Oak Leaf Lost) and I made him quite annoying (like his namesake, Mr. Connery Preston McGinty) and I now realize that I have given all of the main three Rangers OC apprentices-Carter, the complete idiot for Will, Blake, the only actually semi-normal Ranger who ever lived for Gilan, and Connery, the annoying stickler for the rules for Halt. **

* * *

><p>Will looked at Connery, his arms crossed. Connery was practicing his shooting and Will was supposed to be watching him and making sure he was doing it right, but all Will could focus on was how absolutely perfect and well-behaved Connery was.<p>

"What exactly is wrong with you?" Will asked, not quite allowing the sentence to reach his brain before he said it. He realized how it sounded as soon as he said it, and would have reworded it if he could, but Connery had already heard the sentence and was looking at Will really strangely.

"What?" Connery asked, not entirely sure that he'd heard right. Surely Will hadn't just asked him what was_ wrong _with him. There was nothing wrong with him, as far as he knew.

"Sorry. What I meant was why do you act so well-behaved all the time?"

"That's how children are supposed to act. We're supposed to listen to our elders and respect them."

Will raised one eyebrow at the boy. "Is that so?" Will gave a flippant answer and facial expression, but inside he was panicking. If this kept up, Connery would replace Will as Halt's favorite apprentice! Will couldn't let that happen.

Connery was nodding in answer to Will's question, and was drawing his bow.

Quickly, Will formulated a plan in his mind to make sure that this kid couldn't replace him as Halt's favorite apprentice. Then he dismissed the plan because it was way too violent. Will wasn't a _murderer_, after all!

Quickly, Will formulated a plan in his mind to make sure that this kid couldn't replace him as Halt's favorite apprentice and also didn't involve killing said kid. Yeah. This plan was actually good. Nothing could possibly go wrong! Oh no. Knock on wood!

Will tapped a tree a few times to get rid of the bad luck that came from thinking that sentence. Then he started his plan. "I think kids are supposed to have fun and get in as much trouble as they can. Basically, kids are supposed to break the rules."

Connery paused his shooting and raised one eyebrow at Will. "No. That's _not_ how children are supposed to act." He resumed shooting.

"That's how I acted, and I ended up alright." Will said.

Connery snorted.

Will's jaw dropped in shock/taken-aback anger. Had Connery just snorted at him? "What?" Will said, just a little angrily.

"Well, you didn't exactly end up alright." Connery said over his shoulder.

"Yes I did! Look, I've got all of my limbs and I'm a _stellar_ ranger."

"Yes, but you just called yourself _stellar_. Not really an adjective that an entirely sane person would use."

"Adjective choice doesn't matter; what matters is that I'm a great Ranger, and I'm entirely sane, and I _somehow_ managed to have a fun childhood!"

"You got kidnapped by Skandians when you were fifteen."

"And it was _fun_!"

Connery stopped and turned around. "Getting _kidnapped_ by _Skandians_ was _fun_?"

"…Yes."

"Ah. Okay." Connery made an expression that Will didn't like before turning away from Will and starting his shooting again. Ugh, this annoying kid _couldn't_ become Halt's favorite apprentice! But Will's plan had failed and had only resulted in an argument that Will was 90% sure he hadn't won. Frankly, Will had no idea how to stop this kid from becoming Halt's new favorite apprentice.

Then Connery ran out of arrows (they were all stuck in one of the targets that were set up. Not one of them had missed. Just another reason for Halt to like this kid more), and he walked over to the targets to collect them. He didn't dawdle at all as he collected them, even though he must have been extremely tired after so much shooting.

Will watched him as he collected the arrows, and he suddenly felt a little sorry for the kid. Sure, he was annoying, but he had obviously grown up in an extremely disciplined household. Will couldn't imagine a household like that being any fun at all. Maybe Connery didn't even have any friends! Will knew he wouldn't be friends with such an annoying prick. Surely all of the other children had similar thoughts.

Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing if he became Halt's favorite apprentice.

Except _Will_ was Halt's favorite apprentice. Will didn't care how sad the kid's childhood was. _He_ was Halt's favorite apprentice.

Connery may have never experienced the fun of breaking the rules, but Will sure had. And Will knew one rule that he thought could be excusably broken in this situation.

Will stood up and walked into the cabin to prepare them both drinks. He may have poisoned Connery's when he was in there, but he may not have. We'll never know, because Halt got back just before Will would have walked outside. Will just managed to throw both drinks out before Halt walked in, wanting to know why Will was in the cabin instead of coaching Connery.

* * *

><p><strong>So now we're in the second half of this challenge! So exciting! Everyone who has been with me thus far gets an Internet hug, which is like a real hug except...Not real.<strong>


	51. Sport

Sport

The gathering this year was very interesting, just like it was every year. It was made more interesting by the presence of apprentices belonging to three of the best Rangers ever, Will Treaty, Halt o'Carrick, and Gilan Davidson.

"So…" Blake said to the other two apprentices. "What should we do?" The three were standing a bit to the side of the main gathering. The main reason they weren't hanging out with the other apprentices was simple: Connery didn't think they were good company (which was rich kid-speak for he thought he was beeter than them because he was being trained by Halt). Blake didn't particularly like Connery, but he was fond of Carter for some absurd reason, and Carter considered himself friends with both Blake and Connery. Carter insisted that they didn't let Connery be alone for the entire gathering, and Blake didn't like to think what would happen if Connery and Carter were together without anyone to intervene on Carter's more idiotic remarks or Connery's more cutting ones.

"Ooh! We should play Sport!" Carter said, a bit louder than necessary.

"That doesn't sound like a very intelligent game." Connery said. He didn't particularly like Blake and he thought Carter was really annoying, but they were the apprentices of Will Treaty and Gilan Davidson, who were former apprentices of Halt.

"No, it's really fun!" Carter said.

"How do you play?" Blake asked.

"It's easy! You get a bow and an arrow. Then you all stand in a circle and you shoot an arrow straight into the air. The first person to move loses!"

Connery raised one eyebrow at Carter. Then he looked at Blake.

Blake stared a Carter. "That sounds kind of dangerous."

"That's sort of the point." Carter said.

"Right, so we're not going to play sport." Connery said, finalizing the issue.

Blake rolled his eyes, but he could hardly disagree.

Carter looked a bit disappointed. "Why can't we play Sport?"

Connery looked to Blake for help.

Blake sighed, and looked at Carter. "Can you imagine what our mentors would do to us if they saw us playing a game like that?"

Carter's eyes widened. "Yeah…Probably better we don't play that."

"Right. So instead…Why don't we just—" Connery started.

"Why don't we play tag?" Blake suggested, cutting Connery off.

"Yeah!" Carter seconded.

Blake touched Connery on the shoulder. "You're it!" He yelled, before running off. Carter had run off in the opposite direction.

Connery stood, mouth open, looking at the spaces where the two boys had been. Well…

He started walking in the direction Blake had gone. Blake would be an easier target; Carter may be an idiot, but he was fast.

* * *

><p>An hour later, Connery still had not managed to tag either one of them. "Guys, this isn't fair!" He yelled into the forest where he'd actually seen both of them together five seconds before.<p>

"Everything is fair in tag!" He heard Blake's voice behind him. Connery spun around quickly, but the boy was gone. Connery let out a growl of frustration. He straightened his cloak. "I'm going back to camp." He said.

"No!" It was Carter's voice this time.

Connery tilted his head in the direction of the voice. "Will you be it?"

Carter nodded before he realized that Connery couldn't see him. "Yes."

"Okay." Connery said, "but you have to give me a thirty second head start."

It took Carter about two minutes to find and tag Connery.


	52. Deep in Thought

**I'm sorry it's been so long. I had no ideas for this at all, and finally yesterday I asked my friend Glory (her Pen Name thing is pearlgirl98, if you wanna go find her) for any ideas, and she gave me this one so...Here.**

* * *

><p>Deep in Thought<p>

"…And that is why I need you to not destroy the cabin or the woods or anything else for half an hour until I get back. Do you think you can handle that?" Will said to his apprentice.

Silence.

"Carter?" Will asked.

Carter blinked and shook his head, as if coming out of a daze. "Sorry, what?" He said.

"You didn't hear anything I just said, did you?" Will asked.

"Well…Not exactly." Carter responded.

Will face-palmed.

"Just repeat it real fast!" Carter said.

"I seriously just gave you like a fifteen-minute speech; I'm not repeating that!" Will said. "What were you thinking about that was so important?"

"Oh just…Stuff." Carter said.

Will raised one eyebrow at his apprentice. Then he decided that he really didn't care that much. "At least I know that you're capable of thinking about things."

* * *

><p><em>I wonder how many birds it would take to lift the cabin…It would probably depend on the size of the birds. How big is the biggest bird in Araluen? How many of them are there? What—<em>

"Carter?" Will's voice broke Carter out of his thoughts.

"Sorry, what?" Carter said.

"You didn't hear anything I just said, did you?"

* * *

><p><strong>Seriously, I should really be doing my Biology homework right now because I have like fifteen pages left in my packet to do. I also could maybe be sleeping because I'm like freaking dead right now, but...Who needs sleep anyway? Sleep is overrated.<strong>


End file.
